


Spectral Feline Companion

by miinyuu



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Ghost Cat, ships are more in the background but both definitely there, sibling fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 07:04:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14764895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miinyuu/pseuds/miinyuu
Summary: Even after being freed from her umbrella prison, Lup still feels like she's missing something. She needs a friend, and Taako is determined to help.Commission for my friend Kieran!





	Spectral Feline Companion

**Author's Note:**

> The twins sure are hard to write when they're actually being sappy and vulnerable for a change, but I hope I did them justice? This was such a sweet thing to get to write and I'm pretty happy with it in the end, I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> Commission info: https://twitter.com/ilovelup/status/998031691162832896

It’s a ‘normal’ day in the Astral Plane when Taako finally gets to visit—as normal as it can be in such a case. The Raven Queen doesn’t typically allow visitors, of course not, and why would anyone want to _visit_ the Astral Plane anyway?—but with consistent bugging from Lup, and enough persuading from Kravitz (due to Taako’s own annoyance), there he stands, checking out the ‘home’ of his boyfriend, sister, and brother-in-law. With as much power as he has in the world these days, he figures he might as well use it for something fun. He receives a bit of a tour along the way, but before it’s finished Barry pulls Lup aside to talk to her about something seemingly important. A mission of some sort, perhaps? 

“This is sick as hell, my dude,” Taako grins to Kravitz in the meantime. “I’ve gotta fuckin’ up my goth aesthetic though, I’m not just letting you win like this. But I mean, ‘can turn into an actual literal skeleton’ is pretty hard to beat. Also pretty hot.” 

Kravitz laughs, but when he catches a flash of The Raven Queen out of the corner of his eye, behind Taako, he takes that as a warning. “You can’t stay much longer,” he warns, suddenly serous in tone, their allotted ‘tour’ time almost up. The Raven Queen has been more than generous already, and even if Lup didn’t seem to care, Kravitz fears what would happen if he crossed her again. 

“Alright, alright, just one more hour? C’mon, how often do people get to visit here? Can you blame me for wanting to check it all out? There’s _souls_ just _floating around_ and shit!” 

Kravitz’s expression leaves no room for bargaining. 

“ _Fine,_ fine, just let me say goodbye to my sister!” He turns and looks to Lup, caught up in her conversation with Barry just out of earshot, and it’s only then, from the outside, that he notices something strange. Lup’s eyes have a more hollow look to them than usual—even for being a lich. She looks drained and less excitable. Usually when she’s talking to Barry in particular she doesn’t look half this gloomy or empty. It’s more difficult to tell in her spectral form, sure, but Taako can usually discern when something’s off with her. Spending a lifetime with someone can do that. 

Taako approaches them and slides his body between the two, cutting Barry off mid-sentence and paying absolutely zero mind to what they were talking about previously. 

“Oh, uh, hey Taako,” Barry greets him. “Sorry I couldn’t join you earlier, I was busy studying this necromancer’s grimoire of—“ 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, nerd. Can I talk to Lup for a sec? I gotta say goodbye.” 

Barry nods, and before he can even properly remove himself from the conversation Lup’s cut in with, “Aww you’re leaving already?” Barry takes this as his cue to leave, and so he switches place with Taako, makes his way over to Kravitz to tell him about his findings instead. 

“Yeah, Krav’s mom says I gotta go home.” Lup laughs, but it’s short-lived as Taako’s expression grows just a bit more somber just then. He looks to make sure Barry’s far enough away to not hear them when he continues, “But first… are you alright, Lulu?” 

“Uhh, _yeah_ , why?” Lup asks, looking very convincingly lost. 

“Your face,” Taako says simply. Said to anyone else this could leave them wondering if there’s a makeup smudge or a bruise they weren’t aware of, but after all these years, Lup knows what he means. He knows every twitch of her ears, every glint in her eyes, every curl of her lips. Even after years in an umbrella, years in which he forgot her entire existence, he still knows how to tell when she’s upset. Even when her face is barely a face, semitransparent and with features all sorts of ‘otherworldly’. And thinking back, he doesn’t know how he didn’t see it when she and Kravitz were giving him their tour of the place. Was he too focused on seeing the Astral Plane? Was Kravitz distracting him? Was she just good at hiding it until she dropped her guard for a moment? 

Lup sighs. 

“Taako… being a lich is _fucking rad_ , don’t get me wrong. But… it has its drawbacks. Just because we’re in the Astral Plane doesn’t mean I’m any more corporeal here than I am on the Material. Barry has his body back already, you’re still properly alive… I’m just… here. Alone.” 

She slumps her shoulders a bit, not meeting Taako in the eye. She does look up for a brief second, however, to make sure Barry in particular is far enough away still, now talking to Kravitz about their day, to not hear her voicing her concerns. She knows if he heard this he’d just go lich again; he’d offered a few times before, and that would just put them back at square one again when she did finally get her body back. It’d be a never-ending cycle of always being on the other side of the metaphorical glass. 

“It just sucks, after being trapped and totally alone for years, to be freed and still not even be able to… I don’t know, get a hug from anyone? Hold hands with Barry? _Anything_?” 

“It… it’ll only be a couple more months,” Taako assures her. He can feel himself getting emotional, Lup being his only real weak spot, but he tries his best not to show it. “Then you _know_ I’m getting in on a cuddle pile with you and Barry as soon as possible.” 

Lup smiles at that and leans in, giving the appearance that she’s hugging him even if neither of them feels it. 

***

It’s later that night, back at Taako’s home on the Material Plane once again, that he sits down with Kravitz to talk. The two are sitting on the sofa together, Taako sideways with his legs across Kravitz’s lap, when he brings up his talk with Lup. Despite his hatred for serious conversations, there’s little he wouldn’t do for his sister. So he swallows his pride. 

“And I was thinking maybe there was something you could do, some bullshit I-Am-Death’s-Right-Hand-Man magic-whatever you could pull? There’s got to be another way to get her body back—”

“I have an idea.” Kravitz meets Taako’s eyes with a serious look, one of determination, and there’s a flash of hope mirrored back to him. The elf sits up a bit straighter in anticipation, though Kravitz then adds: “I can’t get her a new body, not any faster than that… pod thing… that you have… but I have an idea that might help.” 

Taako sighs a bit and relaxes back on the couch again. “Ya gonna tell me what the big idea is then, bone daddy?” 

Kravitz shoots Taako a glare as he moves his legs from off his lap and stands up. Kravitz extends a hand and summons his scythe, his face deteriorating to his skeletal figure as he says, “I told you not to call me that.” He leans in and kisses Taako quickly while his lips still have flesh to them, and Taako presses his lips together to stifle a laugh. 

Kravitz swings his scythe in the empty space before him to open a portal, and as soon as he steps through it, it’s gone. 

*** 

It’s a few hours later while Taako is cooking dinner for the both of them, in hopes Kravitz makes it back soon, that he does finally return. His portal opens back in the living room, so Taako doesn’t hear him come in. Which explains why, when Kravitz asks him, “what are you making?” Taako nearly jumps out of his skin. 

Taako does his best to hide his reaction after the fact, turning around calmly and smiling, with just a hint of malice to the grin, uttering through gritted teeth, “Pasta puttanesca. It’s a lazy kinda night.” It’s then, facing Kravitz, that he notices he must have made Taako spill some of the sauce on himself. 

Kravitz tries to hold back his laugh but fails just as horribly as Taako had a few hours prior. 

Taako gives him a similar glare too in return, and in a deadpan, asks his boyfriend, “So what was your big idea?” 

Kravitz steps slightly to the side to reveal a cat with short grey fur on its head and back and white all down its stomach and legs. It walks over to Taako and tries to rub its face on his legs but ends up looking disappointed. He reaches down to pet it and ends up just the same, his hand going right through it without feeling a thing. 

“Ghost cat.” Kravitz grins, and Taako laughs a bit at how simply he puts this. 

“Y’know what, my good dude? That just might work.” 

*** 

One day and a stone of far speech call later, Lup shows up at Taako’s house, her entry not at all lacking in flame visuals and otherworldly sound effects. There are drawbacks to being a lich, yes, but she certainly has her fun with it too. 

Yet after her show has concluded, the only thing she has to say to Taako is a simple, “ ‘sup?” 

“Nothin’ much, just got you a—” Taako is interrupted by the sight that catches his eye below him, the cat walking right through his legs to appear before Lup, entirely spoiling his surprise and the grand reveal he had planned. “Oh god _damn it!_ ” he shrieks. Lup laughs, looking down to the cat, and only then does it hit her. 

“Ghost cat?” 

“ ‘Spectral feline companion’ sounds cooler in my humble opinion, but yeah, sure.” Taako grins as Lup kneels down, lich robe falling around her as she pets the cat. 

“It— Taako, it’s soft.” 

“Yeah, Krav said it was,” Taako says, but Lup looks up to him then, a distinct look in her lich form’s eyes. It’s a bit hard for him to read some expressions still with her face like this, but from what he can tell it almost looks like she’s about to cry. 

“No, Taako, I mean… _it’s soft._ I can feel it.” 

“Oh,” Taako says, shrugging. “Yeah, I mean, _duh_.” 

Lup laughs, still petting the cat. She watches it circle the bottom of her cloak, and as she rubs its head she looks up to her brother. “Thank you… Taako, thank you. I love it.” The look on her face, however masked by the lich form, makes it difficult for Taako to remain his composure too. He can see the relief in them, and it hits him right in the cold, ‘mostly dead, but not as dead as Lup’s’ heart. But he’s glad. 

***

It’s later that evening that Lup introduces the cat to Barry. 

“No worries about your allergies either, babe! It’s perfect!” 

“Yeah, uh, except one thing,” Barry says, crouching down and making an attempt to pick the cat up. His hands go right through it in the process, and he looks back up at Lup with a deadpan expression. 

Lup laughs, and as soon as she’s crouched down and has extended her arms, the cat jumps right up into them. It snuggles right into her body, seeming just as eager for affection and physical contact as Lup had been. 

“Don’t be mad it loves me more than you,” she teases, sticking her tongue out at him playfully. She holds the cat against her chest and pets it slowly. “But, see? Taako can be alright sometimes. To me. When he tries,” Lup says, looking to Barry. When they make eye contact, they both laugh. 

And when they fall asleep together later that night, Lup curled up with the cat and not with her boyfriend/husband/‘whatever they happen to be now after so many cycles, in at least ten of which they got married’, Barry isn’t laughing anymore. 

But somewhere out there, Taako definitely is. 


End file.
